Pentos
Pentos is one of the Free Cities, the nine great cities of western Essos. It is a port-city, found on the eastern coast of the Bay of Pentos. Also considered within Pentoshi territory are the ruined city of Ghoyan Drohe. Given the city's long history as a centre of trade, the wealthy and powerful of the city are often heavily involved in mercantile actions. Since the Six Wars Against Subjugation, it has been considered part of the Alliance of the Narrow Sea. Layout The Port Surrounded on three sides by massive stone walls populated by tall square towers, nearly all visitors to Pentos do so via the three main harbours. * The Magister's Harbour - Named for its close proximity to the most affluent part of the city, in which the manses of nearly all the magisters and wealthy merchants may be found, the Magister's Harbour is by far the most lavish, but not the largest. Maintained by an army of freebond servants and guarded by Unsullied Warriors, its boardwalks are carved from marble and populated with statues of gods and kings. * Singer's Wharf - The largest of the three harbours, Singer's Wharf is the main harbour used by merchants and travellers alike, and is capable of holding near three hundred vessels at full capacity. Located nearby are a great number of taverns and brothels, as well as the Prince's Market. * The Bronze Harbour - Home of the twenty warship-strong Pentoshi fleet permitted in their agreements with the city of Braavos, the Bronze Harbour is the smallest of the three main harbours. The City The Free City of Pentos is home to merchants and traders both great and small, seafarers and sailors, mummers and whores, and each are represented in some way within most of the city's many districts. Districts of particular note include: * The Golden District - Stretching across much of the northern and western parts of the city, the Golden District is home to the majority of the manses and solars of the Magisters of Pentos. Filled with sprawling gardens containing colourful flowers and shrubs from across the known world, and host to a melange of exotic fruit-trees the Golden District is a lavish display of the mercantile wealth of the Free City. Guards heralding from dozens of sellsword companies, now committed in service to a more stable, less cut-throat profession, patrol the marble streets, scrutinising those whom they believe do not belong in the District. Despite this apparent safety, nearly every manse is surrounded by walls of its own, though this may be to keep away prying eyes as much as keeping its contents and owners secure. * The Spice District - Containing the storehouses and merchant premises largely responsible for lifting the Free City from its days as a Valyrian outpost tended to primarily by farmers, the Spice District is located near the Singer's Wharf. Contained within the Spice District the remnants of the long officially outlawed slave trade still persists, and the associates and assistants of the city's magisters will often return, bringing with them freebond servants acquired from within. * The Merchant's Quarters - Whilst the Spice District is built upon history and tradition, the Merchant's Quarters changes with the turn of the months and years. Every moon a new trading organisation sets up headquarters within the district, only to depart the next, driving new construction and renovation at a rate unparalleled anywhere in the city. At its eastern edge, the Merchant's Quarters gives way to the sprawling Prince's Market. * The Plaza of Fountains - Overlooked by the looming palace in which the Prince of Pentos resides, the Plaza of Fountains is located roughly in the centre of the city. Some three-dozen pools and statues can be found within the square, of varying size and form. Amongst the fountains mummers perform shows in motley and costume, seeking the attention and coin of passersby. * The Prince's Market - According to citizens of Pentos, the Prince's Market is the largest and greatest singular market in the Known World and offers near everything to a visitors with the coinage. Spices from Qarth and the Far East, cages filled with deadly manticores, butterflies the size of a man's palm and small queer looking monkeys from the forested Kingdom of the Ifeqevron, bronze and iron helmets chased with precious stones, Myrish lens and fish caught fresh from the Bay, all can be found upon merchant stalls within the Prince's Market. * The Sunrise Town and Gate - On the eastern wall closest to the Rhoyne, the Sunrise Gate can be found, and serves as the primary land-based route for entrance into the city. Around the gate a number of shanties and huts have been built, stretching far from the walls themselves. Besides the occasional intervention to ensure the Sunrise Road remains unencumbered, the town has been largely allowed to proliferate out of control, and is now considered by many to be a district in its own right. The Prince The Prince of Pentos is a title bestowed to an individual chosen from the forty families of Pentos. At the start of each New Year, the Prince is responsible for deflowering the maidens of Sea and Field during the Festival of Prosperity. The role of Prince is bestowed upon the chosen individual without much autonomy, and carries a heavy cost. If the city finds itself in hard times, the Prince is executed as an appeasement to the gods, and a new one chosen in their place. A full account of the Princes of Pentos can be found on the page, Princes and Archons, Magisters and Triarchs. Timeline of Events * 23BA - Pentos sends an army and fleet to Tyrosh to aid in the stand against Volantis, whilst all the while delivering supplies to resistance cells within Lys and Myr, preparing them for rebellion. * 14BA - Tyroshi and Pentoshi magisters petition the last remaining Dragonlords, House Targaryen of Dragonstone to assist in their efforts against Volantis, although there is no immediate answer from the other side of the Narrow Sea. * 113AA - Following the Triarchy's victory in the Stepstones, the city of Pentos grows fearful that their attention may soon turn to further expansion of their territories to the north and east. Seeking assistance from the Sealord of Braavos, Adaryrio Ostaris, but they find no assistance from the notoriously lax and lazy man. * 124AA - Following the fall of Anlos in 121AA, the Pentoshi Flatlands are plagued by fighting and war. Moons pass without conflict, a seemed cessation of the aggression, before erupting once more in spectacular fashion. Pentos once again looks to assistance from Braavos, but the Sealord Adaryrio Ostaris is slow to respond, if truly at all. * 128AA - Adros Eranin served as Sealord for only six years before being accidentally slain in a spar with the First Sword at the time, Haratho. * 129AA - As the Siege of Pentos extends into its third year, Pentos once again pleas for assistance from Braavos. Where the last Sealord was lax, Adros Eranin is instead motivated to guard against the threat the Triarchy pose, and thus pledges Braavosi support against them. An army of sellswords meets with the men of the Triarchy outside the walls of Pentos, forcing them into retreat towards Long Lake. Preparations are made for the Braavosi fleet to sail south, and smash the Triarchy's own navy, but the latter are caught at the Battle of the Gullet two moons later. * 197AA - Belorno Maris becomes Sealord of Braavos after the death of his predecessor. He is remembered as the Uniter, for it was through his actions that the Alliance of the Narrow Sea started to be, starting with the conquest of Pentos. * 200AA - The Six Wars Against Subjugation are fought between Pentos and Braavos, the latter seeking the abolishment of slavery in its neighbouring Free City. In Pentos, each of the six battles is remembered by the names of the Princes ruling at the time, although few survived longer than a few months before being executed. Maros' Battle started when a pair of Braavosi warships seized a Pentoshi slave galley convoy bound south from Beyond-The-Wall, liberating nearly four hundred wildlings bound for a life in servitude. A Pentoshi fleet of fifteen warships responded by pillaging Braavosi trading routes, before a clash between military navies finally occurred off the coastline of Andalos. After their defeat, Maros Vynys was executed, and his successor Gyllan Orlyrion chosen. Gyllan was executed after the destruction of a number of Pentoshi outposts to the north of the city, in a series of raids remembered as Gyllan's Lamentation. * 201AA - Syreo's Pride and Syreo's Fall occurred in the second and third moons of 201AA respectively. A Pentoshi army repels a Braavosi invasion force in the Velvet Hills north of the ruined city of Ghoyan Drohe, but leaves the city largely undefended from a sellsword army that shatters defences around the Bay of Pentos. Such actions faciltate the direct attack on first the city's navy by the Sealord's fleet, known as the Failing of Aeros, and then the city itself, remembered as Innidos' Siege, for Prince Innidos Brenyl, who ordered the gates be opened to the attackers, and the surrender of the city. For such actions in minimising the bloodshed, the Prince has been long celebrated in Braavos and Pentos alike, particularly in recent decades as Pentos has begun to flourish like never before. * 205AA - Hailed as a hero for his actions during the Six Wars Against Subjugation, Innidos Brenyl is executed after a fire breaks out in the Bronze Harbour, destroying a third of the Pentoshi fleet. At the time, a number within the city claimed it was set by a few amongst the Conclave of Magisters that disagreed with the involvement of Pentos with the newly formed Alliance of the Narrow Sea. * 226AA - When Doneno ordered the execution of the Maidens of Sea and Field after the night of the New Year, the subsequent investigation by the magisters of the city found that he was impotent. Unable to deflower the virgins, he was executed, and a replacement, Flaris, chosen. * 229AA - Flaris, a fearsome and famed soldier who had served in multiple sellsword companies during his three decades of life, is remembered as the Prince of Pentos who wept during his execution. * 236AA - Syrios Dydsar is sacrificed after new defences for the southern side of the city are damaged in a violent storm remembered as the Wistful Tempest, which caused widespread damage elseswhere in the city too. * 243AA - After the sacrifice of Lazillos Dynis, the nephew of Gyllan Orlyrion is chosen as the new Prince of Pentos. Unlike his uncle, who was sacrificed after only a few moons, Lysicho Orlyrion served the city for six years before his death at the hands of the Magisters. * 249AA - The oldest Prince in recent history, Alaqo was seven-and-fifty when chosen as Prince of Pentos. Whilst showing experience and some sagacity, he died of an overexcited heart abed with the Maiden of Fields during the Festival of Prosperity at the turn of the year 250AA. * 255AA - Fearing that the blockade against Lorath may adversely affect trade, the Magisters start to strengthen their trade routes with the Dusklands and the Kingdom of the Claw. Storms in the Narrow Sea hamper their efforts, and as a result they see cause to sacrifice the current Prince, Varys Iranohr to appease the wrongs performed to incite such wrath. * 258AA - A poor harvest in the footlands of the Velvet Hills is considered the wrath of the gods for a previously unconsidered slight. In response, the Prince of Pentos, Nevio Hestys, is sacrficed, and a replacement chosen from the forty noble families of the city. * 267AA - When a naval trade convoy carrying a wealth of gold, silk and spices goes missing before it can reach Lorath, the Magisters of the city sacrifice the current Prince, Stallan Eranos, before choosing another in his place. * 271AA - The Five Year War for Myr begins, starting with the Siege of Anlos. After two moons, the city surrenders, and is occupied by a Pentoshi-Braavosi army. All the while, however, the Myrish have been preparing for the inevitable march south by the Sealord's army. * 272AA - The Ambush of Long Lake occurs when a Myrish army marches north, catching the joint Pentoshi-Braavosi invasion force by surprise as they departed the newly conquered city of Anlos. Shattering the Sealord's host within a league of the city that he had conquered a few moons prior, the Myrish sent the Alliance army fleeing north back into Pentoshi territory, before rallying the residents of Anlos to rise up against their subjugators. The gates were thrown open within a week of the Myrish siege, and its residents liberated. * 273AA - It was a year later by the time that the forces of the Alliance of the Narrow Sea grew bold enough to approach Myrish lands once more. Returning with a much larger army, the Sealord deftly defeated the Myrish force left to defend the city, before shattering its defences and recapturing the city. Key figureheads known to have played a part in the returning of the city to Myrish control in 272AA were put to the sword, and Anlos was subjugated once more. Without delay, the Sealord's force marched south down the Trader's Road towards Myr itself. As before, they found themselves met by a Myrish force of near twenty thousand men, their army bolstered by that of several sellsword companies. The battle is remembered as the Myrmen's Lament for the scale of the Braavosi victory. Sent fleeing southeast, the Myrish army was routed, and Myr left free for Braavosi-Pentoshi assault. * 274AA - The Siege of Myr continues into its second year, hampered by raids from sellsword companies sent by the Myrish general to harrying the Sealord's armies. Rumours begin to circulate that what remains of the Myrish army after the Myrmen's Lament has fortified upon the shores of the Violet Lake, gathering their strength for a counterattack. * 275AA - After continued raids and sabotage attempts upon their siege weaponry, a Pentoshi-Braavosi force is sent to investigate the rumoured presence of the Myrish General Tyros Drahar to the southeast. Finding themselves suddenly surrounded by a much larger force, Tyros and his men make a valiant final stand at the edge of the Violet Lake, but are ultimately defeated. However, in the meantime, a number of sellsail companies transport a Volantene army into the Sea of Myrth, where they deliver a scathing strike against those men left to continue the siege. The Sealord returns to Myr, finding it defended by a revitalised force, and seemingly commanded by Tyros Drahar, back from the dead. Ordering a retreat, the joint Braavosi-Pentoshi force returns north to Anlos, and Myr celebrates its deliverance from the Sealord's grasp. * 277AA - After the eventual fall of Myr, a new Prince is definitively chosen. The current Prince has ruled ever since, marking just over two decades of prosperity for the city. * 278AA - Shortly after the fall of Myr to Braavosi control, emissaries from the city of Great Norvos are sent to Braavos, seeking an agreement of non-aggression and ongoing trade deals. The Norvoshi join the Alliance of the Narrow Sea peacefully upon the signing of a series of documents referred to as the Pact in the eighth moon of 278AA, and have enjoyed membership ever since. * 282AA - When the Sealord Jarilos Prestayn dies after serving in the position for nearly forty years, there is great concern that the flourishing Alliance of the Narrow Sea may crumble in his wake. The lack of widespread troubles for his successor have proved otherwise. * 298AA - Considered by the people of Braavos to be the most leal member of the Alliance of the Narrow Sea since their conquest by the Sealord and his fleet of Peacekeeper Captains at the turn of the century, Pentos continues to prosper through trade with other members of the Alliance, as well as routes serving both the Kingdom of the Claw and the Dusklands. With a fearsome fleet to protect its interests upon the waves, and the introduction of watchtowers along the Pentoshi shoreline, the Prince of Pentos and the Conclave of Magisters seem eager to prove that even though they may serve the Sealord, they are certainly not helpless without the armies of Braavos. After the eventual fall of Myr, a new Prince is definitively chosen. The current Prince has ruled ever since, marking just over two decades of prosperity for the city. Category:Free Cities Category:Essos Category:City Category:Pentos